Piedmontese Tomahawk Steak at Star King BBQ: Monumental But Is It Worth Its Price Tag?

It's big. Star King BBQ serves one of the biggest steaks I've ever seen (Ok. The Peter Luger Porterhouse was bigger and better). Called the Piedmontese Tomahawk steak, it's a massive, bone-in, center-cut rib-eye steak. It doesn't mean it was flown in from Italy but rather certified as very good and special by the beef powers that be. It took forever to cook and it was good. But was it worth its $$$$ price tag? Read on.

Before and After -- isn't it gorgeous? Yes it is. It was challenging to cook it medium rare for this bloody-meat-loving carnivore while also cooking it medium for the rest of my party. Look at that charred beauty! What was rather disturbing was that for all the amazing quality of the meat, our server proceeded to use scissors to cut all the pieces. Don't get me wrong. I love using scissors for most food preparations. But watching our server cut up the lovely meat into little pieces with his scissors while depleting them of all their juices was disturbing. In retrospect, I should have asked him to stop and asked for a knife instead... I mean, what a waste. I do believe the flavor of the steak was affected by this travesty.

The "old-school" galbi, called "Yennal Galbi," had two strikes against it -- it was too sweet and the quality of the rib meat wasn't good. It had too much fat. Last time I checked, "traditional" galbi didn't mean low quality meat drowned in sugar. Ok, I'm exaggerating.

The thing is, the sweet meat pieces tasted good at first bite because sweet is good. However, the best marinades strike the perfect balance between salty and sweet. After a few bites, you had to pair the meat with the greens salad or pickled radishes to balance the sweetness. I understand pairing the meat with anything your heart desires on the table is normal. But good galbi should also be able to stand on its own. Plus, the meat was far too fatty and tough. It needed some kiwi in the marinade!

The greens salad was necessary but the dressing was unremarkable. It didn't have to be strong flavored but the best salads counter balance the heavy meat perfectly.

I didn't want to waste my stomach on too much banchan, or side dishes, but I liked the potato salad with lots of peas and corn and the pickled radish strips sprinkled with some red pepper flakes.

The remaining dishes were nothing special. The wine choices were interesting but it doesn't have the by the glass option (so we just took our remaining wine home).

Not sure about this place. I feel like if I'm going to have a big rib-eye steak, I'd rather go to a Peter Luger. If I'm going to have marinated galbi, I'd rather do Soot Bull Jeep. A shout-out to CTG for her great photos (#2-3), as always!